Volu 2, Chapter 2. Aftereffects
It felt like sothing was strange with her body...
Leticia’s expression was slightly dazed. She unconsciously touched her forehead. “My hands are so cold...”
It shouldn’t be a particularly serious cold or fever...
After pausing for a mont, Leticia adjusted the large bundle Yemi Ai had tossed to her, slung it on her back, and under the cover of night followed the empty-handed Lady in Black.
“Why did you stop just now?”
Yemi Ai’s casual question instantly made Leticia more alert.
This Lady in Black—never mind that she said she wouldn’t kill her, wouldn’t kill her—but when truly dealing with her, that kind of nervous dread, that feeling of treading on thin ice, couldn’t be sensed unless face-to-face.
Who could know in which of Yemi Ai’s questions lay hidden malice, or the trap of death?
In not even a month, Leticia might not be covered in wounds, but she had long since lost count of how many tis she had been beaten.
“N-no, it’s nothing!”
Shrinking her neck, Leticia carefully said, “Lady, I feel like my condition... isn’t quite right...”
“Condition not right?”
Yemi Ai sneered. “What, you realized you might have a chance to escape after knowing you could go to town, and got too excited?”
“No, it’s really not like that...”
Shaking her head helplessly, Leticia clutched her icy hands. “Lady, I feel like I might be sick...”
“Sick?”
Glancing at her in slight puzzlent, Yemi Ai thought for a mont, then called her forward. “Tell your situation.”
“It seems to have started in the last two days.”
Leticia blinked forcefully. “I feel... weak, like whenever I exert myself, my head keeps spinning, my vision turns blurry.”
She was certain this wasn’t a cold or fever. Common illnesses didn’t only manifest when exerting oneself. If it was sothing more severe...
What might the forest harbor? Malaria? So kind of viral flu? She wasn’t too knowledgeable in this area, but Leticia knew that in such a technologically backward world, if she caught such a disease, it would be equivalent to a death sentence.
Not to ntion the potential of plagues like the Black Death—diseases capable of wiping out all of Europe within a century in her past world.
No, thinking about it that way, any illness at all could be fatal...
She had heard that so colds, if left untreated, could develop into pneumonia. In this world, for soone like her—a penniless commoner—that too was a death sentence.
Uncle John’s sickness had been due to overwork. In theory, simple rest was enough, but even so, he had been at death’s door. Without so leftover money and the Church’s aid, he likely...
So now, feeling unwell, Leticia was panicking beyond reason. And the more she panicked, the dizzier and more muddled her head beca.
“Hmph, is that so...”
After thinking it over, Yemi Ai pulled out a small bottle from her clothes, popped the wooden stopper, and poured a single drop of liquid onto her fingertip, making Leticia drink it.
“Ugh...”
It entered cool at first, but quickly turned scalding. Leticia felt as if she had swallowed a drop of burning oil, and her insides were blazing!
“Cough... cough cough cough... What is this?! Cough!”
“Didn’t you suspect you were sick?”
Yemi Ai said blandly. “This is the fastest way to check.”
Waiting there, on the jungle-covered narrow path, ten minutes passed. Seeing no further reaction from Leticia, Yemi Ai clapped her hands. “All right, congratulations. You’re not sick. It should just be psychological.”
“I see...”
With a wry smile, her throat still seared as if by fire, Leticia took two deep breaths. Her head felt clearer. “Thank you, Lady.”
“No matter. It would be a pity to lose such a rare little maid.”
Yemi Ai shrugged. “But you said you feel dizzy and weak after exerting yourself, right?”
“Ah, yes...”
Leticia nodded. “That’s why I was thinking maybe I was ill.”
“Illness...”
Leaning against a tree trunk, Yemi Ai gently stroked her own face, half-smiling. “You said before—the boy linked to you, what was his status again?”
Because it was night, Stano’s consciousness wasn’t present, so they could converse freely.
“Uh, he’s the son of a general from another kingdom.”
“Then I have so guesses. If they’re true, it would be quite regrettable.”
Yemi Ai looked at Leticia. “Do you want to hear?”
“...Yes!”
Stano?
What could he have done?
Why would the Lady in Black think her abnormality had to do with him?
“I once heard so rumors.”
Yemi Ai’s hoarse voice echoed in the night forest. “An army, besides fine equipnt, good training, and complete manpower, would also prepare battle tactics, forbidden combat techniques, and final desperate asures.”
“The first three are easy to understand. Forbidden combat techniques were those martial skills passed down in the army, created specifically to kill. They carried bad effects and unacceptable costs to the user, so they were taboo, not used lightly.”
“And final desperate asures, as the na suggests, were ultimate thods of charging toward death.”
The corners of her mouth lifted faintly beneath the black veil. Yemi Ai rubbed her neck, as if giving her damaged voice a rest. “Once a final desperate asure was used, the user would unleash all their life potential, bursting with tenfold, hundredfold strength. It was a true fight to the death.”
“Most who used them died on the battlefield. The few who survived quickly withered, dying within a year or two.”
Yemi Ai smiled at Leticia. “Do you want to know the symptoms of those little darlings who burned away their lives?”
“C-could it be...”
Leticia’s pupils shrank as a terrible thought struck her. Her heart raced, blood pumping frantically through her veins.
Alongside it ca that sa weakness, that dizziness that had appeared recently.
“At first, they felt as if they were recovering from a long illness.”
Yemi Ai grinned wickedly. “Then they realized their bodies were steadily weakening, shrinking away. Gradually, they could no longer walk on their own, couldn’t exert themselves, couldn’t grow emotional—otherwise they’d faint, possibly never waking again. And that’s only the early stage. Later, they lost their senses, beca living corpses, hair falling out, bodies aging, directly stepping into senility. In confusion and fear, they wasted away, finally dying of extre weakness.”
“And you—what stage are you at now, Leticia?”
Impossible...
It couldn’t be!
Agitated in an instant, Leticia shouted, “I’ve never used such a thing, and Stano—!”
Wait...
She suddenly rembered: in that city, after exhausting herself getting there, her body shouldn’t have had the strength to escape. Yet under Stano’s control, an unbelievable power had arisen, and she had fled...
Could it have been then? That ti? In that mont when she lost consciousness?!
Stano!
Stano!!
Stano!!!
The sound of her heartbeat thundered like crashing drums.
With it ca a shattering sensation, like a snapped string in her mind.
The dizziness surged with physical weight, pressing down on her, swallowing Leticia’s consciousness in an instant.
“Triggered by exertion, or perhaps by extre emotional fluctuation? This kind of life-force drain... it’s been a long ti since I’ve seen it.”
Catching Leticia’s small collapsing body, Yemi Ai casually took the large bundle, then with mocking tenderness wiped the sweat from her face. “And to think it’s happening to a wedding dress that actually wants to survive... this is getting more and more interesting, hehe...”
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